Capt Sannah Sithole did not foresee when she answered an advertisement for civilian doctors to help out the UN mission in Liberia that she would end up making history in Ireland.
Capt Sithole (33), who grew up in the black township of Soweto in South Africa, had never even been to Europe before she began treating Irish troops in June 2004.
By November 2004, she was not only a captain in the Army, but living in a country 9,000km from home. "I was going to stay for six months, but I'm still here," she says.
Capt Sithole now works as a doctor in St Bricin's Military Hospital in Dublin and lives in the capital with her son Nqobile (10). "A lot of black people, when they see me wearing a uniform, naturally they look amazed," she says. "Some of them who speak to me don't believe that I am a black South African woman in the Irish Army. It's actually inspiring."
Capt Sithole is the only black woman in the Army, although a doctor from Nigeria may be joining the ranks soon. A Defence Forces spokesman said: "We're delighted to have her. She's proven from the moment she got on board overseas that she can fit right in. We now have a multicultural society and we hope the Defence Forces will reflect that in time."
The Defence Forces is hoping to boost its proportion of women members from six to 10 per cent and a report into women in the Army, commissioned by Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, is due to be published soon.
